DBAWI Design Notes: Close Combat

Let's start with the basic close combat values.

Unit Type	Order	Factor
Line Infantry	CO	+4
Line Infantry	LO	+3
Light Infantry	CO	+4
Light Infantry	LO	+3
Light Infantry	OO	+2
German Rifles	OO	+1
American Rifles	OO	+0
Indians	OO	+3
Cavalry	LO	+3
Cavalry	OO	+2
Artillery	Light	+1
Artillery	Medium	+2
Artillery	Heavy	+3

Bruce Bretthauer on the DBA-HX forum noted about tactical factors: "elements with low numbers die". That got me to thinking: the doctrine of the period was definitely that the musketry was to disorder and demoralize the opponent, but the decisive weapon was the bayonet. Shake the enemy up, then go in with cold steel and get them to start running.

As I look at the numbers, I really don't have any room to play with. The American Rifles are at +0 as it is. (Militia rifles would be at a dismal -1, which may be too low and require an exception that states "no roll and factors can take you below a modified roll of '1', otherwise doubling a '0' is rather easy...) If I want to incorporate Bruce's thoughts, I need to either compress the range or modify the shooting factors upwards. I'll look at the latter idea next blog entry.

The next part of close combat is the results table:

Unit Type	Result if Beaten	Result if Doubled
OO Cavalry	Recoil.	Destroyed by Cavalry, LO or CO Infantry, and Artillery, otherwise flee 600 paces.
All Other Cavalry	Destroyed if in Bad Going, otherwise recoil.	Destroyed.
Artillery	Gun captured and crew recoil.	Gun captured and crew destroyed.
BUA Garrison	No effect.	Destroyed.
Rifles and Indians	Recoil if contacted by Rifles, otherwise flee 300 paces.	Destroyed by Cavalry if in Good Going or by OO Light Infantry, otherwise flee 300 paces.
OO Light Infantry	Recoil.	Destroyed by Cavalry in Good Going or by other OO Infantry, otherwise flee 300 paces.
Militia Infantry	Flee 300 paces.	Destroyed.
All Other Infantry	Recoil.	Destroyed.

Some of the results may look a little strange, but it is intended to provide the feel I am looking for. Rifles will flee from close combat, but because of their movement they can simply return back next round (if they have the pips). Light infantry in OO is the same way, but they trump Rifles because of their bayonets. Militia infantry will pretty much run from all combats they lose (which is likely, given they are LO and militia).

The primary difference in tactical factors with DBAWI is that an overlapping element that also contacts the flank or rear (i.e. the element's front corner touches the corresponding corner of the enemy element's or the element's front face full contacts the enemy element's rear face) gets an additional -1. This plays back into the change to the recoil mechanism (see DBAWI Design Notes: Redefining Recoil)).

As always, tell me what you think.

UPDATE: All references to "Patriot Rifle" are now "American Rifle" to reflect that Loyalist militia can also be armed with the same rifle.